glorycloud's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- the memory is illumined by the intellectual light It is 9:58 AM Sunday morning in the flow of existence. It is a cold dark rainy day here by Lake Michigan. It is also cold and dark in this house I find myself locked in. I dream of warm love embraces. I got up this morning around 7 o'clock AM. I stayed up late last night and watched Austin City Limits because they had R.E.M. giving a concert. I have never been into the music of R.E.M., but did not feel like going to bed last night at my usual bed time. So I did not get to bed till almost 12:30 AM. Now it is the first day of another week. We are now in the middle of the month. Existence keeps flying by. This morning when not sitting in the dark feeling miserable I have been reading "The Spiritual Canticle" by St. John of the Cross. In reading spiritual works like "The Spiritual Canticle" I realize there are other Christian spiritual realities besides my own when reading Mystical Theology. We have to free ourselves from our egos and see the many ways the life of God can be lived out in the world. Not every Christian can live like a Christian who follows the teachings of R. C. Sproul for example or even St. John of the Cross. We have to be true to what we know to be pleasing to the Lord in this vale of tears. Well I will close to drift through the day. There is no way of escape. "1. What, then, is the state of this happy soul in her bed of flowers where these things and so many others take place, in which she has for her couch the Bridegroom, the Son of God, and for a covering and hanging, love of this very Bridegroom? She can certainly repeat the words of the bride: His left hand is under my head [Sg. 2:6]. We can therefore assert truly that this soul is here clothed with God and bathed in divinity, not as though on the surface, but in the interior of her spirit, superabounding in divine delights. In the fullness of the spiritual waters of life, she experiences what David says of those who have reached God: They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house; and you will give them to drink of the torrent of your delight, because with you is the fountain of life [Ps. 36:8-9 {Ps. 35:9-10}]. What fulfillment will the soul have in her being, since the drink given her is no less than a torrent of delight! This torrent is the Holy Spirit, because, as St. John says, He is a resplendent river of living water that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb [Rv. 22:1]. These waters, since they are the intimate love of God, flow intimately into the soul and give her to drink of this torrent of love that, as we said, is the Spirit of her Bridegroom infused in this union. As a result she sings this stanza with abundant love: In the inner wine cellar Commentary 2. In this stanza the soul relates the sovereign favor God granted by recollecting her in the intimacy of his love, which is the union with God, or transformation, through love.[1] And she notes two effects of this union: forgetfulness or withdrawal from all worldly things, and mortification of all her appetites and gratifications. In the inner wine cellar 3. To explain something about this wine cellar, and what the soul wishes to make known here, it will be necessary for the Holy Spirit to take my hand and guide my pen. This wine cellar is the last and most intimate degree of love in which the soul can be placed in this life. Accordingly she calls this degree of love "the inner wine cellar," that is, the most interior. As a result, there are other steps of love not so interior by which one ascends to this last. And we can assert that there are seven of these degrees or wine cellars of love. They are all possessed when the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are possessed perfectly according to the soul's capacity for receiving them. Thus when the soul attains to the perfect possession of the spirit of fear, she has the spirit of love insofar as that fear, which is the last of the seven gifts, is filial. And perfect filial fear arises from perfect paternal love. So when the divine Scripture wishes to point out that a person is perfect in charity, it says such a one is God-fearing. Isaiah, in prophesying the perfection of Christ, said: Replebit eum spiritus timoris Domini (The spirit of the fear of God will fill him) [Is. 11:3]. St. Luke likewise called Simeon a God-fearing man: Erat vir justus et timoratus [Lk. 2:25]. And so with many others. 4. It should be known that many people reach and enter the first wine cellars according to the perfection of their love, but few in this life reach this last and most interior; for in it is wrought the perfect union with God, called spiritual marriage, of which the soul is now speaking. What God communicates to the soul in this intimate union is totally beyond words. One can say nothing about it, just as one can say nothing about God himself that resembles him. For in the transformation of the soul in God, it is God who communicates himself with admirable glory; the two become one, as we would say of the window united with the ray of sunlight, or the coal with the fire, or the starlight with the light of the sun. But this union is not as essential and perfect as in the next life. Thus to explain what she receives from God in the interior cellar of union, the soul says nothing else - nor do I think she can say anything more adequate - than the following: I drank of my Beloved, 5. As the drink is diffused through all the members and veins of the body, so this communication is diffused substantially in the whole soul, or better, the soul is transformed in God. In this transformation she drinks of God in her substance and in her spiritual faculties. With the intellect she drinks wisdom and knowledge; with the will, sweetest love; and with the memory she drinks refreshment and delight in the remembrance and the feeling of glory.[2] As for the first, that the soul receives and drinks delight substantially, the bride speaks of it in the Song of Songs: Anima mea liquefacta est, ut sponsus locutus est (My soul delighted as soon as the bridegroom spoke) [Sg. 5:6]. This speaking of the bridegroom is equivalent to God's communication of himself to the soul. 6. In the same book the bride says that the intellect drinks wisdom when, in desiring to attain this kiss of union and seeking it from the bridegroom, she said: There you will teach me (wisdom and knowledge and love), and I shall give you a drink of spiced wine (my love spiced with yours, transformed in yours) [Sg. 8:2]. 7. Regarding the third, the will drinks love as the bride says in the Song of Songs: He put me in the secret wine cellar and set in order charity in me [Sg. 2:4]. The meaning is that when I was put in his love, he gave me love to drink; or, more clearly and properly speaking: He put his charity in order in me, making his own charity fit and suit me. Hence the soul drinks of the Beloved's very own love that he infuses in her. 8. It should be known that the teaching of some about the will's inability to love what the intellect does not first know ought to be understood naturally. Naturally, it is impossible to love without first understanding what is loved, but, supernaturally, God can easily infuse and increase love without the infusion or increase of particular knowledge. This is the experience of many spiritual persons; they frequently feel they are burning in love of God, with no more particular knowledge than before. They understand little but love a great deal, or understand a great deal but love little. As a matter of fact those spiritual persons whose understanding of God is not very advanced usually make progress according to their wills, while infused faith suffices for their knowledge. By means of this faith God infuses charity in them and augments this charity and its act, which means greater love, although, as we said, their knowledge is not increased. Thus the will can drink love without the intellect again drinking knowledge, although in our case, in which the soul says she drank of her Beloved, all three faculties drink together insofar as there is union in the inner wine cellar. 9. As to the fourth, in which the memory drinks of the Beloved, it is clear that the memory is illumined by the intellectual light in remembrance of the goods the soul possesses and enjoys in the union with her Beloved. 10. This divine drink so deifies, elevates, and immerses her in God that she says: and, when I went abroad" St. John of the Cross "The Spiritual Canticle" Stanza 26 10:09 a.m. - 2011-05-15 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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